Magnetic handling



March 27, 1934. RAYMOND 1,952,777

MAGNETIC HANDLING Filed March 23, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR If. Ry v on d,

March 1934- H. H. RAYMOND MAGNETIC HANDLING Filed March 25. 19:51

4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR March 27, 1934. H RAYMOND MAGNETIC HANDLING Filed March 23, 1951 4 Sheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR March 27, 1934. H. H. RAYMOND 1,952,777

MAGNETIC HANDLING v Filed March 23, 1931 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR a I and,

Patented Mar. 27, 1934 r i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MAGNETIC HANDLING.

Horace H. Raymond, Kensington, Conn.

Application March 23, 1931, Serial No. 524,582

13 Claims. (01. -162) This invention relates toamethod and apparabe provided with openings for the screws and tus for the magnetic handling of material, such screw caps 29 for closing the openings. as nails, screws, nuts, washers, rollers, etc., be- The recess 23 is preferably closed by a cover tween a hopper and packaging or treatment or plate held in place in any suitable manner. 5. other machines. i The drum is preferably formed of non-magnetic A11 Object s to provide a imple and efficient material and may be of a single aluminum castmethod and apparatus for such handling. ing. The recess 17 is preferably provided with ot r Object is to provide an efiieient metha brass liner 31 through which the heads or pole ed for handling elongated objects in an orderly pieces 27 f the magnets project. 10 Imanner and in substantial parallelism so that a The insulating ring 32 is mounted on the standp li y m y be y lda ly a i a y be ard 12 adjacent the rear wall of the drum 10 and presented a Selecting nd guide or feeding secured in position by one or more screws such as mechanism. 33. The screw 33 passes through an elongated Fi 1 is a v r al s ti hr u h em d nt slot 34 in the standard so that the ring 32 may 15 iof this invention. be circumierentially adjusted for the purpose 2 152 right e d View Of the device how hereinafter described. This insulating ring 32. in 1 with parts be broken y to S ow may be of what is commonly termed ffibre and details of construction. carries two commutators, 35 and 36. The com- F g. 3 shows a modified construction embodymutator 35 is in the form of a continuous ring, 20 .ing the present invention. whereas the commutator 36 is in the form of a 4 is a top plan Vi w O the dev ce of Fig. 3. segment which extends from a point below the 5 is a right side view of the device of axis of the drum to a point which is above the Fig. 3. axis, that is, it is substantially semi-annular.

The drum 10 is provided with a hub 11 sup- These commutators may be secured to the insu- 25 ported by the standard 12, having the bearing 13. lating supporting ring 32 in any suitable manner This hub may be provided with a bolt 14 which and are provided with terminals 3'7 and 38, re-. passes through an external disc 15 and screws spectively, for the cable which provides the elecinto an interior disc 16. tric current. Each magnet coil is connected to The drum is preferably mounted to rotate on the brush 40 which engages the outer ring'35 and 30 a horizontal axis and is provided with a recess each coil has an individual brush 41 engaging or chamber 17 for the articles which are to be the inner commutator segment 36. It will thus separated and arranged in order. At one side be seen that each magnet will be energized durof the drum I mount a hopper 18 so that a subing that portion of each revolution in which its stantial quantity of the articles may be handled brush 41 engages the commutator segment 36.

35 at one charge of the machine. The standard 12 Preferably the brushes and commutators are proand hopper 18 may be conveniently supported on tected by a cover 42 which is secured to the back a base 19 and a post 20 or in any other suitable of the drum and a shield 43 which is secured to manner, the standard 12.

The drum 10 is r fer bly provided w a The discharge guide preferably consists of two flange 25 constituting the walls of said recess, members Spaced apart from each other a with a peripheral flange 21 and an outer flange sufiicient distance to permit the passage of the 22 which may conveniently serve as a belt surface shank of the articles to be Sorted or arranged and the upper end of the guide is arranged for dlivmg the drum. The parts are so constructspaced apart from the upper Wall of the recess 45 s provlde chamber 23 for sfmes of 17 in the drum a sufficient distance to allow for tro-magnets 24. Each magnet consists of a C01]. the passage of the head f the artic1e The wound on a sleeve and provided with a core 26 inner end f the space between the guide ofmagnetic material. This core is provided with hers is arranged in th plane th centers of an inner head 27. The back of the recess 23 is t pgle-pieces 27. The v width of these pole 50 p to permit the magnet Coils 130 be inserted. pieces is preferably narrow as indicated on the and the drum is provided with passages for the drawings. The current strength is such as to cores 26 of the magnets. Each magnet is held make-the magnets only pick up articles and carry in place by a screw which screws into the outer them around in the plane of the opening between end of its core and thus clamps the magnet to the inner end of the guides. Of' course when 55v the drum. The outer periphery of the drum may an object is picked up by its end as is illustrated should be picked up properly, otherwise a number of articles may be picked up and then uselessly dropped without being properly deposited in the defl cting guide. The shape and size of the guide 44 will of course depend upon the shape and size of the articles to be handled.

The commutator segment 36 is preferably so arranged or adjusted to cause each magnet in turn to be energized as it passes above the hopper floor and de-energized just as it passes over the upper inner end of the deflecting guide.

This not only saves useless expenditure of energy but insures the rapid pick-up and deposit of the articlesin the guide as the drum is rotated. The guide is so constructed and arranged, however,

as to tend to properly deflect and detach the articles from the drum, even in case the magnet retains some of its attractive power.

The hopper is preferably provided with an inner flange which extends into the drum re- 3 cess and covers the heads of the magnet throughout a part of the circumference of the drum. Whilethis keeps the weight of the mass of articles oii the drum except during the time necessary for the magnets to act, such is not necessary.

5, A guard plate 46 may be provided and may be "secured to the inner wall of the guide 44 next to theedge of the rotating drum so as to prevent articles from dropping down between the drum and the guide 44 although this plate 46 is not necessary. The inner end 47 projects inside the "drum above the guide 44 to prevent any interference with the operation at this point. The drum is also preferably provided with interior projections such as 48 which serve to agitate. 45 the mass of articleswithin the drum as the drum rotates. Such agitation is particularly desirable when the articles being handled are large.

v These projections '48 may be hollow and serve as convenient conduits for the wires (not shown) leading from the brushes to the magnets. .It, is

' possible byapparatus of this character to automatically handle great quantities of articles at high speed at very small cost of operation. The construction is very simple and inexpensive and requires a minimumamount of supervision and "repair.

In Fig. 3 the rotatable carrier 49 has the magnets 50 disposed axially instead of radially as is the case in Figs. 1 and 2. These magnets may .be either permanent magnets or electro-magnets 'in which each iswound with a coil. If the magnets are electro-magnets a commutator device similar to that illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 will of course be necessary although such commutator device is not shown. The pole pieces 51 and 52 of each magnet project through the carrier disc 49 since this carrier is preferably'of nonmagnetic material such as aluminum, for ex ample. By having the pole pieces project through 7o 1 the carrier disc and be substantially flush with the inner face thereof, the flux density on'this side of the disc may be much greater than if the pole pieces were not allowed to extend entirely, The articles to be sorted are. placed in the hopper 53 when they will be picked through the disc.

' from each pole piece.

up by the carrier until the objects engage the guide 57 by means of which the articles may be led through off to a packaging or treatment machine.

Some convenient mechanism for driving the carrier disc may be provided such as the chain 54 which rotates the disc 49 through the shaft 55. The clutch handle 56 is provided so that the shaft 55 and the carrier disc 49 may be stopped without stopping the chain 54. In order to vary the spacing between the disc 49 and the guide 5'7 the upper end portion of the guide 57 may be separately adjustable by the screw 58 illustrated although this screw 58 is intended primarily as a brace for the sake of rigidity.

Adjustment in separation between the disc 49 and the mainbody portion of the guide 57 is accomplished by means of the nut which is shown at the very top of Fig. 4 and located outside the hopper. Loosening this nut permits shifting the guide 5'7 toward and from the disc as this nut is located ina slot in'the outer end portion of the guide. In order to prevent the carrier disc from picking up more articles than are desired at one time, a notched stripper plate 59 is provided, the notches allowing elongated objects to pass therethrough only in an endwise position, the illustrated arrangement for pole pieces and stripper plate insures the articles being raised in substantial parallelism between the pole pieces. Upon'reachi'ng a position over the guide 57 the articles may be'mechanically withdrawn from each pole piece by the guide, or if a commutator device is used the magnets may be de-energized to automatically release the objects over the guide. With the disc type carrier'asingle guide member 57 has been found suihcient since it 00- operates with the inner face of the disc permitting the disc to function as a guide member.

However, if desired two guide members may be used as illustrated in Fig. l for example. Adjusting'jthe spacing betwe'enthe carrier disc 49 and the'guide permits objects'of different size to be conveniently handled.

While not previously described the spaced guides 44 illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 may also be made relatively adjustable to suit 'objects or" diiierent size.

, In this invention it is desirable to have a rheostat in the circuit of the magnets. Especially is this desirable in the construction illustrated in l and Fig. 2 where if the excitation is too strong the magnetic flux will cause 'an excessive number of elongated objects to be carried in a heterogeneous arrangement and at various angles Upon decreasing the flux density the excess articles will drop off from the pole pieces of Fig. l and Fig. 2, and the field may be made just a little more than strong enough to support one object, in which case an elongated object of magnetic material will be freely supported to swing by one end with its center of gravity depending, and the axes of the several objects being raised arranged in substantial parallelism. In'Fig. l the parallel arrangement of the objects beingcarried is obtained by adjust merit of the field strength and by gravity, whereas in the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 3 to 5 inclusive, the, parallel arrangement of elongated and-non-symmetrical objects between the pole pieces-depends not only. upon the requisite flux density but also upon the cooperation of the stripper plate 59-which facilitates such parallel arrangement.

With the drum typehandling apparatus of Figs. 1 and 2 the magnets'should be spaced far enough apart so that a single object being handled is not long enough to bridge the space between the pole pieces, or in other words, the magnets should be so arranged that no one object is capable of being simultaneously under the influence of two magnets. With this drum type handler, projections fixed to the drum and extending into the recess near the periphery may if desired be provided to additionally agitate the contents, or expressed in another way, the agitating means 48 may be moved closer to the periphery. If the projections 48 tend towear down, a hard fiat plate may be placed over them toshield them against wear although such a.

flat plate will not provide for any agitation if such is desired. .The construction illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 is especially adapted for handling elongated headed objects although it will be understood that by providing different shaped guides, objects like nuts or balls may be handled. Also it should be understood that several elongated objects may be simultaneously picked up by each pole piece in the form illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2. The essential requirement is for these elongated objects to be close enough together so that they will be received between the diverging ends of the guide.

Where headed objects like wood screws are handled with the disc type carrier it may be found desirable to use two guides because otherwise the sharp edge on the head of Wood screws would be in danger of cutting the disc. Where flat objects like ordinary nuts are handled, no stripper plate need be provided.

On the other hand where non-symmetrical objects like body-nuts are handled, a stripper plate will be needed in order to have the small projecting portion of each body-nut similarly arranged. Wherever the stripper plate is used the notches in this stripper plate serve to aline the objects. The magnetic handling apparatus of the sort illustrated electro-magnets are preferable because it is desirable for the pole pieces to project through the non-magnetic drum or disc and since these pole pieces should be smooth and flush with the surface of the non-magnetic material, and since this is generally accomplished by a grinding or other smoothing operation which might weak n a permanent magnet, the projecting pole pieces should preferably not possess residual magnetism which might be so destroyed by grinding.

Among the advantages of this invention may be mentioned the ease and simplicity of handling objects and arranging them symmetrically at small cost. The cost of operating is also small compared with the customary mechanical handlers of the rising blade type which consume a large amount or" energy to force the rising blade through a bin full of objects. While no projections are provided in which the objects can become jammed within the hopper, nevertheless in case such objects become jammed it may be desirable to use extra strong excitation so that the consequent strong increase in flux may act to break up any jam if one should in some way happen.

The sorting and rejecting may be either by means of the stripper plate or the guides. With the common commercial mechanical sorting mechanisms for flat objects like nuts etc., this invention is a decided improvement since it enables the objects to be taken oii the top and not ifrom the bottom. While the loading platform illustrated-in Fig.1 may be used with Figs. 3 to 5, it should also be understood that such a platform is not necessary. Where no platform is needed the magnets should be energized adjacent the top of the material in the bin so as to avoid dragging objects attached to the pole pieces through the body of material in the bin or hopper. Also the time at which the magnets are energized'mayvary if desired, according to the level of the material in the bin.

This application is a continuation in part of my prior application S. N. 41,724 filed July 6,

1925, Patent Number 1,798,629, dated March 31,

I claim:

l. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises arranging a plurality of such objects in parallelism and then selecting those having their heads in one direction and rejecting those having their heads in the opposite direction.

2. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises magnetically removing and carrying such objects of magnetic material from a hopper in substantial parallelism, and then retaining and moving a substantial portion of the objects in parallelism during and after their release from the magnetic influence.

3. The method of handling objects of magnetic material which comprises magnetically extracting such objects from a hopper and then adjusting the flux density so that said objects will hang freely suspended at one end from a magnet pole piece.

4. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises carrying them freely suspended from one end and then selecting those objects having their heads in one direction while so suspended and rejecting those having their heads in the opposite direction.

5. The method of operating a magnetic handler which comprises passing magnets down through a hopper and rendering said magnets ineffective while doing so, and then raising said magnets and rendering them effective as they rise adjacent the top of material in the hopper whereby the magnets may extract objects from the hopper without impeding movement of said magnets by the hopper contents.

6. The method of handling elongated objects of magnetic material which comprises magnetically carrying such objects in parallelism and mechanically removing such carried objects from control of the magnetic flux supporting them.

7. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises magnetically carrying such objects of magnetic material, selecting some of the objects and rejecting others by passing them through the selecting means.

8. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises arranging and moving at least some of said objects in substantial parallelism, selecting some of the objects from a carrier and rejecting only those having their heads inverted with respect to the objects selected.

9. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises sequentially withdrawing objects from a collection, raising said objects by one end and while depending substantially vertically during at least a part of their movement, selecting some of the objects from a carrier and rejecting only those with their heads inverted with respect to those selected.

10. The method of handling elongated headed objects which comprises sequentially withdrawing objects substantially 'endwise' from one side.

of a collection while holding said objects by one end and selecting only those objects having their heads contiguous the holder and rejecting those not so arranged.

11. A magnetic handler comprising a rotary disc of non-magnetic materiaL-a hopper on one side and magnets on the opposite side of said disc adapted to carry objects on the opposite side of the disc from the magnets and between magnet poles of'unlike polarity arranged in pairs, and guide means for cooperating with objects carried by said disc to select and lead such objects.

12. A magnetic handler comprising arotary disc of non-magnetic material, a hopper on one side and-magnets on the opposite side of said disc adapted to carry objects on the opposite side ofthe disc from the magnets, and guide means for cooperating with objects carried by said disc to select and lead such objects, and said-guide means comprising a single guide track spaced from said disc for supporting elongated objects by their heads between said track and" disc.

13.The method of handling non-symmetrical objects which comprises, applying such objects to pole pieces of successive magnets in a similar' 

